Tag: WW2

#BookReview #Ad The Letter Reader by Jan Casey

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The Letter ReaderAbout the Book

She read their secrets during the war. Now she cannot forget them…

1941. London. Keen to do her bit in the war, Connie Allinson joins the WRNS and is posted as a letter censor. Her task: to read and alter correspondence to ensure no sensitive information crosses enemy lines. At first, she is not sure she’s up to it, but is soon drawn in by the letters she reads, and their secrets…

1967. Doncaster. Bored of her domestic life, Connie desperately wants a job, but her controlling husband Arthur won’t hear of it. Looking for an escape, and plagued by memories of letters she read during the war, she makes a bid for freedom and starts secretly tracking down their authors. Will uncovering their past give Connie the key to her present? And will she be able to find them all before Arthur discovers what she is keeping from him?

Format: eARC (384 pages)            Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 11th May 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I found the details of Connie’s war work absolutely fascinating and obviously the product of extensive research by the author.  Of course, I was aware of the censorship of mail but I was unaware of the meticulous processes that lay behind it and the extent of the training censors undertook in order to be able to spot many different types of codes that could be hidden in ordinary seeming correspondence. I could completely understand Connie’s joy whenever she spotted something suspicious. And I felt Connie’s sadness as she read letters with gossip from home that often, one sensed, hid the reality of daily deprivations and danger. And, of course, the possibility that the intended recipients of the letters might no longer be around to receive them.  Some of the letters leave a lasting impression on her. ‘She’d agonised about all of them during the war; worried about each of their dilemmas; been privy to their deepest, darkest thoughts and most hopeful moments.’

Connie’s wartime activities threw up some potentially interesting secondary characters – Dotty and the mysterious Angelique spring to mind – although they disappear quite quickly from the story, perhaps illustrating the transience of relationships during wartime.

Another of the standout elements of the book for me was the way the author recreated the 1960s, a period of many new things – in fashion (miniskirts and white boots) and music (the Monkees and the Beatles) – but also still with many remnants of the old.  As a child of the 60s, the mention of watching Z Cars on the television and eating pineapple upside-down cake evoked early memories.

It was sad to see Connie’s transformation from practical and resourceful woman to subservient wife, ground down by her husband Arthur’s controlling attitude and obsession for routine, even in their sex life. Theirs has become a stale, empty marriage full of regret and dashed hopes.  ‘It was as if they were ground down by each other in a way that bombs and blackouts and rations had never been able to achieve.’ Personally, I found it hard to see what Connie ever saw in Arthur. It seemed to me the warning signs were there from early on: his reluctance to allow Connie to become involved in war work at all and his vetoing of a wonderful opportunity she is offered, all dressed up as a desire to keep her safe. Although he writes at one point that he wants to be ‘her haven, her refuge and her sanctuary’, he ends up being almost her jailer, acting more like a husband from the 1860s than the 1960s. Today,  we would recognise some of his actions as coercive control.  There were moments later in the book when I had slight sympathy for him but this was countered by the thought that his actions had all come too late and were motivated more by self-pity than a genuine change of heart.  I did wonder, however, if  knowing more about his experiences during the war might have shed light on his actions and attitudes, especially his need for routine and control.

It was joyful to follow Connie’s attempts to break free from the shackles of her marriage, even if her search for the individuals whose letters she had read during the war seemed a little like obsession. Perhaps, more generously, it was a need to deal with ‘unfinished business’ or to find that life had been kinder to the correspondents than to her. Incidentally, I loved the way her brother and sister-in-law supported and encouraged her.

Jan Casey’s previous book, The Woman with the Map, was one of my top ten favourite books of 2022.  For me, The Letter Reader didn’t have quite the same emotional heft but I really liked the fascinating detail about postal censorship and the focus on the contribution made by women to the war effort.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Aria via NetGalley.

In three words: Emotional, authentic, fascinating

Try something similar: The Girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl

Jan CaseyAbout the Author

Jan Casey’s novels, like her first – The Women of Waterloo Bridge – explore the themes of how ordinary people are affected by extraordinary events during any period in history, including the present. Jan is fascinated with the courage, adaptability and resilience that people rise to in times of adversity and for which they do not expect pay, praise or commendation. Jan is also interested in writing about the similarities, as opposed to the differences, amongst people and the ways in which experiences and emotions bind humans together.

Jan was born in London but spent her childhood in Southern California. She was a teacher of English and Drama for many years and is now a Learning Supervisor at a college of further education. When she is not working or writing, Jan enjoys yoga, swimming, cooking, walking, reading and spending time with her grandchildren.

Before becoming a published author, Jan had short stories and flash fictions published.

Connect with Jan
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#BookReview #Ad A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson

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A Complicated MatterAbout the Book

I used to believe the world had been created for me; every stone and grain of sand. As I grew older, I began to think of myself as something tacked on to the edge.

1939, London: From McPhail’s Passage to Kensington’s Grand Palace Hotel, Rose Dunbar is evacuated from her humble home on the Rock of Gibraltar and dropped into a chaotic city of falling bombs, perplexing class rules and bad weather. Despite being ‘flagrantly foreign’ to the locals, she becomes an efficient go-between for the upper-class ladies helping out with the war effort and her own tribe of noisy displaced families.

It is only when she is shifted to the countryside to become secretary to the plain-speaking and sightless Major Inchbold that Rose’s dizzying journey to womanhood will become more surreal than ever, as she drinks tea at the vicarage, shields her best friend from abuse and stands up for the lower orders. But Rose’s greatest dilemma is yet to come, as she must decide where her home – and her heart – really lies.

Format: eARC (368 pages)                   Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: 23rd March 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I’ve enjoyed both of Anne Youngson’s previous two books – Meet Me at the Museum and Three Women and a Boat (now titled The Narrowboat Summer) – and I was pleased to have the opportunity to exchange a few words with her and have her sign my copy of Meet Me at the Museum at Henley Literary Festival in 2018 when she appeared alongside A. J. Pearce, author of Dear Mrs. Bird.

A Complicated Matter is quite different in style and subject matter from Three Women and a Boat, as well as not being set in the present day but during and after the Second World War. However I did find echoes of Meet Me at the Museum in the parts of the book that explore feelings of isolation and finding yourself living a life different from that you’d imagined.

I admit I knew nothing about the evacuation from Gibraltar during the war of those referred to as ‘useless mouths’, i.e. those not required for the defence of the island. This evacuation – of mostly women and children – is the ‘complicated matter’ of the title. Initially, transported to Morocco, Rose and members of her family find themselves separated from loved ones and experiencing the hostility that refugees often face.  At one point there is even a plan to evacuate them to Jamaica; Rose aptly remarks ‘as if they’re a parcel’.

When they are moved to London they experience the terror of the Blitz alongside other Londoners.  But of course they’re not like other Londoners; they have been placed in an entirely alien environment. Rose’s friend Sonia, working as governess to a family, expresses the feeling of dislocation well when she writes, ‘Isn’t it hard being here instead of at home, speaking English all the time, but never feeling English? Not being able to to see the sea? Being surrounded by greenery instead of by rock. Not knowing what is going to happen to us next?’ Rose struggles to find a useful role for herself, besides caring for her disabled mother, although actually she is more useful than she gives herself credit for.

The book is structured as Rose’s story, written by herself, for the consumption of a person who is not identified until near the end of the book. Slightly confusingly this person is referred to in the third person until such time as their identity becomes clear.  The most absorbing part of the book for me was the final section in which Rose takes up a position as secretary to Major Inchbold. I thought it was clever of the author to make Major Inchbold blind as it means he can’t judge Rose on the basis of what she looks like or what she wears, but only what she says and does, how she interacts with other people. There is a moment when Rose enables Major Inchbold to sense her appearance that I found mildly erotic.  Major Inchbold’s moments of anger, borne out of frustration more than anything else, are also a neat echo of Rose’s mother’s often spiky personality.

I admired the insightful way the author explored Rose’s situation and that of anyone who finds themselves uprooted from the surroundings they have known and I found the ending rather moving.

A Complicated Matter is a gently paced novel about displacement, identity and finding your place in the world.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Doubleday via NetGalley.

In three words: Insightful, tender, absorbing

Anne YoungsonAbout the Author

Anne Youngson is the author of the Costa First Book Award-shortlisted Meet Me at the Museum; BBC Radio Book Club pick, Three Women and a Boat and the story collection, The Six Who Came to Dinner. Anne Youngson’s shrewd, warm-hearted and observational prose has been widely praised. Her new novel, A Complicated Matter explores the human heart through the coming-of-age of a young English refugee during the blitz. Anne’s work is published around the world. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and has three grandchildren. (Photo: Goodreads author page)